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Sanctification

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 11:02 -- Joyce Long

~Elizabeth Lapp
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17

Your heart is like a house with many rooms. When you first invite Christ into your “heart house” it is filled with junk. Sanctification involves cleaning up the house one room at a time. The rooms are categorized: your language, music, reading material, media, clothes, friends, activities, hobbies, habits, pleasures. The cleaner of the house is the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible, listen to a sermon, attend a Bible study He speaks through those actions to say to you, “To please the Father, that needs to go.” If you obey, He is pleased; but if you disobey, He is grieved. When you look at the rooms in your heart house and take pride that “mine are cleaner than hers,” you are self-righteous and unwise. You are not to compare yourself to others! If you look at a particular room in your heart house and decide that “no one is going to tell me what needs to go!” you are rebellious and open to Satan. But looking at your heart house and patting yourself on the back because it looks good is pride; God will resist you. The right response is to look at your heart house and ask: “Lord, what else needs to go?” You are showing humility and God will give you grace. Sanctification is a life-long process that makes you more and more like Jesus. Listen to, obey, and invite the Holy Spirit to be your house cleaner.